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| Lorelei at Borders book signing of Vampire Ascending |
Dracula movies shown late night, and sometimes in the afternoon also helped stoke her imagination.
Lorelei is also an artist, and could draw as soon as she could hold a crayon... or lipstick, whatever was available. A lot of art work was done on walls... or whatever was available. She likes to note that the only 'A's she ever got were in art classes.
It wasn't until high school when she took a creative writing class, and loved it so much she began writing poetry (pretty bad stuff), and a continuous love story that centered around her and the Beatles. Paul McCartney was her love interest in that long ago writing venture where she would be found in the commons of her high school writing furiously, hoping to one day become published.
In college Lorelei signed up for another creative writing course and found that the teacher was a published poet and did nothing but encourage her to work on her pieces of prose, short stories and so forth. No mention of bad grammar here.
In 1983, she went on to join a writers group that met in Dubuque, Iowa. She paid for a room and board just to be able to attend all three meetings. Among the group were people who were unpublished, and published--and one who signed on with Zebra during her time there--in poetry, plays, books, including the teacher (John Tigges III), who was into horror and liked the vampire story Lorelei had written. The title to that was "Vampire Legacy". She continued honing it, and then sent it off to many publishers (at that time you could still approach a publisher).
But alas, over the years she tried to get a book published, with no luck. A few short pieces were published, here and there. And then it was impossible to approach a publisher, and agents were now the gate keepers... who did nothing but send her rejections.
But on she continued with her writing. All the while trying something new, but always coming back to the vampire story.
Having no luck in publishing long fiction, she tried short stories. At times it looked like there would be a nibble, but no. There was a long dought in Lorelei's years of writing.
Eventually, a poem was taken by a quarterly (Weeds Corner), and they continued to publish just about anything she sent them--and paid her too. She has had other works published in different journals, as well.
At the age of--well, we'll just say after 30 some years--she had not published a book, she decided to self-publish. Her first self-pulished novel is called "Spell of the Black Unicorn", her only paranormal romance work involving a quirky sorceress from another planet, a likeable aunt who forgets things, her children, and a dark lord who is after the Stone of Irdesi for more power, lots of hocus pocus... oh, and her sorcerer husband who was turned into a vampire. She intends to re-work it and offer it later on as an ebook. |
| "The Spy Who Bit Me" found in the pages of this publication |
Fast-forward a few years and Lorelei is working on yet a nother vampire novel which is a more gritty urban fantasy in the tradition of her favorite authors: Charlaine Harris, Kim Harrison, with a dash of Janet Evanovich.
Placing the first chapter on several writer's group blogs, finally a small publisher (Wilfrid Voss of Copperhill Media) sees her work and invites her to send it to him.
Long story short: Vampire Asceding was birthed, and brought into the world one of her more energetic works.
A year later, Vampire's Trill was published, and sought by those fans who have discovered her works. She tells of being harrassed constantly on facebook and in person "when's the next book coming out". She loves the attention, I assure you.
Oh, and since those days of rejections, her vampire poetry and short stories are beginning to see the light. Her short story "The Spy Who Bit Me" can be found in Dark Moon Digest.
